Two major broker-dealer firms have reported their financial results for the last three months of 2024, with strong growth reported.
The period ended December 31, 2024, was the fourth quarter of LPL Financial Holdings’ 2024 fiscal year and the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year for Raymond James Financial.
LPL reported net income of $271 million ($3.59 per share), a 26% increase from the $218 million ($2.85) in the fourth quarter of 2023 and building on the $255 million ($3.39) in Q3, 2024.
The firm’s advisory assets were up 30% to $957 billion and accounted for 55% of the firm’s total advisory and brokerage assets which increased 29% year-over-year to $1.7 trillion. This was a slightly higher share of total assets than a year earlier (54.3%).
There was a 17% rise in organic assets to $68 billion including $40 billion from Prudential Advisors. Recruited assets of $79 billion included $63 billion from Prudential.
LPL’s advisor count increased by 6,228 year-over-year including around 2,800 from Prudential and approximately 2,200 from Atria Wealth Solutions.
Full year net Income was $1.1 billion, translating to diluted EPS of $14.03, up 2% from a year ago.
"2024 marked another milestone year for LPL," said Rich Steinmeier, CEO. "We delivered double-digit organic asset growth, including the onboarding of one of our largest institutional partners, closed on our acquisition of Atria, continued to advance our pioneering Liquidity & Succession program, and reported record adjusted earnings per share. Looking ahead to 2025, our business momentum and financial strength position us well to continue expanding our leadership across the advisor-mediated marketplace and delivering long-term shareholder value."
See LPL Financial’s investor presentation for its earnings release.
Raymond James also ended 2024 with growth, posting record quarterly net revenues of $3.54 billion, up 17% over the prior year’s fiscal first quarter and 2% over the preceding quarter.
Net income available to common shareholders was up 21% to $599 million, or $2.86 per diluted share; quarterly adjusted net income available to common shareholders of $614 million, or $2.93 per diluted share.
“Fiscal 2025 started strong with year-over-year revenue growth of 17% and net income growth of 21% in the fiscal first quarter, driven by record asset management and related administrative fees and robust investment banking revenues,” said Chair and CEO Paul Reilly. “Despite some seasonal headwinds, we are optimistic entering the fiscal second quarter with strong client asset levels, solid loan growth and healthy activity levels for both financial advisor recruiting and investment banking.”
Client assets under administration of $1.56 trillion were up 14% year-over-year while the firm’s Private Client Group assets in fee-based accounts increased 17% ($2.55 billion) to a record quarter-end total of $876.6 billion.
“The Private Client Group achieved record revenues in the fiscal first quarter largely driven by client asset growth over the prior-year quarter,” added Reilly. “Our client-first values, multiple affiliation model, and robust technology capabilities continue to support strong retention and fuel the strength and quality of the recruiting pipeline. In the fiscal quarter, we generated domestic net new assets of $14.0 billion, an annualized growth rate of 4.0%, a solid result despite the impact of the previously announced departure of one large independent branch on the end-of-period asset levels.”
See Raymond James Financial’s earnings release.
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